VATICAN CITY – The Internet is a “gift from God” that facilitates communication, Pope Francis said in a statement released Thursday, but he warns that the obsessive desire to stay connected can actually isolate people from their friends and family.

Francis made the observations in a message about Catholic Church communications, meditating on the marvels and perils of the digital era and what that means for the faithful going out into the world and interacting with people of different faiths and backgrounds.

In comments that will likely rile the more conservative wing of the church, Francis suggested that in engaging in that dialogue, Catholics shouldn’t be arrogant in insisting that they alone possess the truth.

“To (have a) dialogue means to believe that the ‘other’ has something worthwhile to say, and to entertain his or her point of view and perspective,” Francis wrote. “Engaging in dialogue does not mean renouncing our own ideas and traditions, but the pretense that they alone are valid and absolute.”

According to church teaching distilled by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Catholic Church holds the “fullness of the means of salvation” — a message that has long been taken to mean that only Catholics can find salvation. Church teaching also holds that those who don’t know about Jesus but seek God can also attain eternal salvation.

Pope Benedict XVI was a strong proponent of engaging in interreligious dialogue, but Francis has offered a softer approach in his sermons and gestures. In one famous off-the-cuff homily, he suggested that even atheists can find salvation. He also riled some conservatives when he washed the feet of two Muslims during the Holy Thursday re-enactment of Christ washing the feet of his apostles.

Archbishop Claudio Mario Celli, the head of the Vatican’s social communications office, said he didn’t think Francis was making an official policy statement on interreligious dialogue, noting that the message was merely a reflection, “not a conciliar or dogmatic text.”

But he acknowledged that Francis is shaking things up in much the same “providential” way Pope John XXIII shook up the church in launching the Second Vatican Council.

“We are realizing that there are sensations of, I wouldn’t say difficulty, but of discomfort sometimes in certain circles,” he said. “I think step by step we must rediscover a sense of the path, of what the pope wants to tell us.”

In his message Thursday, Francis said the Internet offers “immense possibilities” to encounter people from different cultural and traditional backgrounds and show solidarity with them.

“This is something truly good, a gift from God,” he wrote. But he warned: “The desire for digital connectivity can have the effect of isolating us from our neighbours, from those closest to us.”

He called for communications in the digital era to be like “a balm which relieves pain and a fine wine which gladdens hearts” and for the church’s message to not be one of bombarding others with Christian dogma.

“May the light we bring to others not be the result of cosmetics or special effects, but rather of our being loving and merciful neighbours to those wounded and left on the side of the road,” he said.

]]>http://www.macleans.ca/news/world/pope-francis-on-the-internet-this-is-something-truly-good-a-gift-from-god/feed/2Secretive Vatican bank takes step to transparency amid money-laundering, papal inquirieshttp://www.macleans.ca/news/secretive-vatican-bank-takes-step-to-transparency-amid-money-laundering-papal-inquiries/
http://www.macleans.ca/news/secretive-vatican-bank-takes-step-to-transparency-amid-money-laundering-papal-inquiries/#commentsTue, 01 Oct 2013 11:21:21 +0000The Associated Presshttp://www2.macleans.ca/?p=427705VATICAN CITY – The Vatican took another step in its efforts to be more financially transparent by publishing a first-ever annual report for the Vatican bank on Tuesday. It comes…

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican took another step in its efforts to be more financially transparent by publishing a first-ever annual report for the Vatican bank on Tuesday. It comes as Italian prosecutors investigate alleged money-laundering there, a Vatican monsignor remains in detention and the pope himself probes the problems that have brought such scandal to the institution.

Earnings at the bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, rose more than four-fold in 2012 as net trading income rebounded from a loss in 2011, the report said. The IOR said it earned 86.6 million euros ($116.95 million) as the value of the securities it held and sold rose to 51.1 million euros from a loss of 38.2 million in 2011. More than 50 million euros of that profit was given to the pope for his charitable works.

The picture may not be so rosy for 2013, with rising interest rates cutting into profits and millions of euros earmarked for the IOR’s ongoing transparency process, which has involved hiring outside legal, financial and communications experts to revamp its procedures, review its client base and remake its image.

“Overall, we expect 2013 to be marked by the extraordinary expenses for the ongoing reform and remediation process, and the effects of rising interest rates,” bank president Ernst von Freyberg said in a statement.

He said the publication of the report meets the bank’s commitment to providing transparency about its activities.

Aside from the earnings, the 100-page report published Tuesday provides some fascinating reading about the secretive institution: The IOR in 2012 had 41.3 million euros in gold, metals and precious coins, owned a real estate company and was bequeathed two investment properties worth 1.9 million euros. It also made some 25.8 million euros in loans in 2012.

The Vatican has long insisted the IOR isn’t a bank but a unique financial institution aimed at managing assets for religious or charitable works — a distinction that presumably helped it avoid typical banking regulations. Yet in the past year, the IOR has slowly revealed itself to work very much like a bank, providing asset management services to its clients, earning some 12.2 million euros in fees and commissions for such services in 2012 and making loans.

The Vatican is about to enter a second round of international scrutiny by the Council of Europe’s Moneyval committee, which helps countries comply with international norms to fight money laundering and terrorist financing. The Vatican passed Moneyval’s inaugural inspection last year, but evaluators gave the IOR and the Vatican’s financial oversight agency poor or failing grades for insufficient controls to ensure that its clients and assets were clean.

The report was released as Rome prosecutors continue to investigate a Vatican accountant, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, who was arrested in an alleged plot to bring 20 million euros into Italy from Switzerland without declaring it at customs. Scarano is also under investigation in his native Salerno for allegedly laundering money through his IOR account. His lawyer has insisted the money was clean and that he was only trying to help out friends.

The IOR’s former top managers, Paolo Cipriani and Massimo Tulli, meanwhile, are under investigation by Rome prosecutors for alleged violations of Italy’s anti-money laundering norms. Rome financial police launched the investigation in 2010, seizing 23 million euros ($30 million) from a Vatican account at an Italian bank after determining that the IOR hadn’t provided sufficient information about the transaction. The Vatican has said it was a misunderstanding and money was eventually ordered released.

Cipriani and Tulli resigned in July.

Around the same time, Pope Francis created a commission of inquiry into the IOR to look into every aspect of its operations to get to the bottom of the scandals that have bedeviled it. The commission has wide-ranging authority to obtain documents, data and information, even overriding traditional banking secrecy rules to get it. Francis also named a trusted prelate to be his eyes inside the bank to figure out what really goes on inside the tower just inside the Vatican walls.

The Vatican bank was founded in 1942 by Pope Pius XII. It employs 114 people, runs the Vatican pension system and oversees about 6.3 billion euros in customer assets. Its customer base has been reduced from some 21,000 customers in 2011 to 18,900 last year, thanks to efforts to close inactive accounts. Customers include religious orders; Vatican offices, embassies and employees; individual cardinals, bishops and priests and foreign embassies accredited to the Holy See.

]]>http://www.macleans.ca/news/secretive-vatican-bank-takes-step-to-transparency-amid-money-laundering-papal-inquiries/feed/1Vatican official arrested in alleged plot to bring 20M euro into Italy on government planehttp://www.macleans.ca/news/world/vatican-official-arrested-in-alleged-plot-to-bring-20m-euro-into-italy-on-government-plane/
http://www.macleans.ca/news/world/vatican-official-arrested-in-alleged-plot-to-bring-20m-euro-into-italy-on-government-plane/#commentsFri, 28 Jun 2013 09:51:28 +0000The Associated Presshttp://www2.macleans.ca/?p=400558VATICAN CITY – A Vatican official was arrested Friday by Italian police for allegedly trying to bring 20 million euros ($26 million) in cash into the country from Switzerland aboard…

VATICAN CITY – A Vatican official was arrested Friday by Italian police for allegedly trying to bring 20 million euros ($26 million) in cash into the country from Switzerland aboard an Italian government plane, his lawyer said.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, already under investigation in a purported money-laundering plot involving the Vatican bank, is accused of fraud, corruption and slander stemming from the plot, which never got off the ground, attorney Silverio Sica told The Associated Press.

It was the latest financial scandal to hit the Vatican and came just two days after Pope Francis created a commission of inquiry into the Vatican bank to get to the bottom of the problems that have plagued it for decades and contributed to damaging the Vatican’s reputation.

Sica said Scarano was a middleman in the Swiss operation. Friends had asked him to intervene with a broker, Giovanni Carenzio, to return 20 million euros they had given him to invest. Sica said Scarano persuaded Carenzio to return the money, and an Italian secret service agent, Giovanni Maria Zito, went to Switzerland to bring the cash back aboard an Italian government aircraft. Such a move would presumably prevent any reporting of the money coming into Italy.

The operation failed because Carenzio reneged on the deal, Sica said.

Zito, nevertheless, demanded his 400,000 euro commission. Scarano paid him an initial 200,000 euros by check, Sica said. But in a bid to not have the second installment of the commission deposited, Scarano filed a report for a missing 200,000 check, even though he knew Zito had it, Sica said.

Carenzio and Zito also were arrested Wednesday along with Scarano, Sica said.

When asked how Scarano responded to the accusations, Sica said “I think that Don Nunzio will respond to the questions.”

It’s not the only troubles facing Scarano.

Prosecutors in the southern city of Salerno have placed him under investigation for alleged money-laundering stemming from his account at the Vatican’s bank, called the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR.

The investigation concerns transactions Scarano, then an official at the Administration for the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, made in 2009 in which he took 560,000 euros ($729,000) in cash out of his personal IOR bank account and carried it out of the Vatican and into Italy to help pay off a mortgage on his Salerno home.

To deposit the money into an Italian bank account — and to prevent family members from finding out he had such a large chunk of cash — he asked 56 close friends to accept 10,000 euros apiece in cash in exchange for a check or money transfer in the same amount, Sica said earlier this week. Scarano was then able to deposit the amounts in his Italian account.

The original money came into Scarano’s IOR account from donors who gave it to the prelate thinking they were funding a home for the terminally ill in Salerno, Sica said. He said the donors had “enormous” wealth and could offer such donations for his charitable efforts.

He said Scarano had given the names of the donors to prosecutors and insisted the origin of the money was clean, that the transactions didn’t constitute money-laundering, and that he only took the money “temporarily” for his personal use.

The home for terminally ill hasn’t been built, though the property has been identified, Sica said.

“He declares himself absolutely innocent,” Sica said of the Salerno investigation.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told the AP earlier this week that the Vatican is taking the appropriate measures to deal with Scarano’s case. There was no further comment Friday from the Vatican about Scarano’s arrest.

Francis has made clear he has no tolerance for corruption or for Vatican officials who use their jobs for personal ambition or gain. He has said he wants a “poor” church and a church that is for the poor, one that goes out to the “peripheries” to minister to those most needy. He has also noted, tongue in cheek, that “St. Peter didn’t have a bank account.”

On Wednesday, he named five people to head a commission of inquiry into the Vatican bank’s activities and legal status “to allow for a better harmonization with the universal mission of the Apostolic See,” according to the legal document he signed creating it.

Two of them are Americans: Monsignor Peter Wells, the No. 3 official in the Vatican secretariat of state, and Mary Ann Glendon, a Harvard law professor, former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See and current president of a pontifical academy.

American cardinals were among the most vocal in demanding a wholesale reform of the Vatican bureaucracy — and the Vatican bank — in the meetings outlining the priorities for the new pope in the run-up to the March conclave that elected Francis. The demands were raised following revelations in leaked documents last year that told of dysfunction, petty turf wars and allegations of corruption in the Holy See’s governance.

It was the second time in as many weeks that Francis had intervened to get information out of the IOR, a secretive institution best known for the scandals it has caused the Vatican. On June 15, he filled a key vacancy in the bank’s governing structure, tapping a trusted prelate to be his eyes inside the bank.

]]>http://www.macleans.ca/news/world/vatican-official-arrested-in-alleged-plot-to-bring-20m-euro-into-italy-on-government-plane/feed/1Pope taps trusted prelate to help oversee troubled Vatican bank in first sign of reformhttp://www.macleans.ca/news/pope-taps-trusted-prelate-to-help-oversee-troubled-vatican-bank-in-first-sign-of-reform/
http://www.macleans.ca/news/pope-taps-trusted-prelate-to-help-oversee-troubled-vatican-bank-in-first-sign-of-reform/#commentsSat, 15 Jun 2013 11:10:09 +0000The Associated Presshttp://www2.macleans.ca/?p=395302VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has taken his first major step in reforming the troubled Vatican bank by tapping a trusted prelate to oversee its management.
Francis signed off Saturday…

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has taken his first major step in reforming the troubled Vatican bank by tapping a trusted prelate to oversee its management.

Francis signed off Saturday on naming Monsignor Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca as interim prelate of the Institute for Religious Works.

It’s a key job that has been left vacant since 2011: The prelate oversees the bank’s activities, attends its board meetings and critically, has access to all its documentation. The prelate reports to the commission of cardinals headed by the Vatican No. 2 who run the bank, giving him a virtually direct line to the pope.

Right before resigning, Benedict XVI tapped German aristocrat and financier Ernst von Freyberg as IOR president. Von Freyberg has said the bank’s main problem is its reputation, not any operational shortcomings.

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican put a new coin on sale last week to commemorate its historic papal transition. Too bad overseas collectors won’t be able to buy it for months.

The Associated Press has learned that the Vatican still hasn’t fully resolved an embarrassing shutdown in credit card services, despite announcing four months ago that systems were back up. The impact has been far worse than the Vatican ever let on, costing the Holy See lost sales at a time when Pope Benedict XVI’s shock resignation and Pope Francis’ surprise election laid the groundwork for a bonanza in Vatican-minted papal memorabilia.

It’s all emblematic of the continued troubles plaguing the Holy See’s financial system, rocked by allegations of incompetence and corruption. But the new president of the Vatican bank, while acknowledging the delays and losses stemming from the credit card shutdown, is brushing off the fiasco.

“So sales will be up in the second half of the year,” Ernst von Freyberg told the AP in an interview, laughing.

The truth is, however, that the credit card woes represent yet another headache for the Vatican as it works to improve its reputation internationally through a painful transition to financial transparency in the fight against money laundering.

In an interview this week, von Freyberg revealed that he was weighing whether to introduce some sort of tax reporting obligations on the bank — known as the Institute for Religious Works — to stem accusations that it’s a tax haven.

“It may well be that having done a thorough legal review,” von Freyberg said, “I come to the conclusion that we should pay more proactive attention to it.”

The credit card debacle meant visitors to the Vatican Museums, who numbered 5 million in 2011, had to use cash to pay for tickets, audio guides and coffee table books on Michelangelo. It was a costly inconvenience given that museum revenues are the top money-maker for the Vatican, bringing in euro 91.3 million in 2011. The Vatican’s other money-making initiatives were similarly affected: Its supermarket, pharmacy and duty-free department store were cash-only. So was its Philatelic and Numismatic Office, which issues commemorative and circulating stamps and coins for collectors and tourists alike.

“A disaster. A disaster. A disaster!” lamented Mauro Olivieri, the head of the coin and stamp office, which in 2012 was the Vatican’s third-place money-maker with some euro 20 million in revenues. “The year 2013 has been what I call the ‘annus horribilis.’”

The first half of 2013 should have been a windfall for Olivieri, given the world’s attention was fixed on the Vatican for a solid month, from Benedict XVI’s historic Feb. 11 announcement that he would retire at the end of the month, to the March 13 election of the first Jesuit pope and first pontiff from the Americas, Francis.

Such historic occasions are sought-after by coin and stamp collectors, who lined up in droves at temporary sales points in St. Peter’s Square to buy the commemorative “Sede Vacante” stamps that were issued as soon as Benedict retired Feb. 28.

“Linn’s Stamp News,” the largest U.S. weekly on stamp news and the market, featured the four-stamp “Sede Vacante” collection on the front page of its March 18 editions.

But anyone who placed an order through the Vatican to buy the stamps electronically received word that the Holy See’s credit card systems were down and orders couldn’t be processed, even though the Vatican had announced two weeks earlier that the shutdown had been resolved.

So the order forms, thousands of them, piled up in boxes in Olivieri’s offices.

Finally, on May 27 — five months after the shutdown — credit card sales resumed for stamps and coins, but the damage was done. The office is months behind schedule, with a backlog dating to November.

Overseas collectors who have long put up with the Vatican’s antiquated way of handling orders — through a time-consuming and labour-intensive subscription and order process rather than simple e-commerce — said it was almost the final straw.

“They don’t seem to run it like a business,” said Henry Gitner, the main U.S. stamp dealer and retailer who years ago stopped buying directly from the Vatican because of the difficulties he encountered. “The only way to get guaranteed delivery … is to literally have someone there buy it and ship it, and then you’re paying a 10-15 per cent commission.”

In the U.S. alone, stamp collecting is a $1 billion a year industry, according to Linn’s. Gitner estimated that a complete set of Vatican-issued stamps could run to around $8,000.

Olivieri said he had no idea how much had been lost, saying only that “undoubtedly” there were losses. Asked if the losses could reach millions, he said he couldn’t say and that he had simply informed his superiors that 40 per cent to 50 per cent of his revenue comes from credit card sales.

“The Vatican had an enormous problem because this happened to the entire Vatican, not just to us: Think about the January sales at the duty-free store: a block on credit cards during the January sales? People coming here during sales with euro 600,000-700,000 in cash? Who comes with that? They come with credit cards.”

The Vatican had announced Feb. 12 that Swiss firm Aduno Group had restarted credit card services in the Vatican. But only on-site “point of sales” terminals restarted then, letting tourists pay with credit cards at the post office and museums. E-commerce was something else entirely and it took until the end of May for the Vatican to adjust its web interfaces with Aduno’s virtual terminals, said Karin Broder, an Aduno spokeswoman.

While visitors to the Vatican Museums can now buy their tickets online to avoid the lengthy lines, the e-commerce bookshop is still down, according to the museum website. Customers are asked to email requests instead.

Requests for comment from the Vatican Museums were not answered.

When asked why the Vatican didn’t find a solution earlier, von Freyberg said simply “I hope that the next time we will not be caught like this. If you find yourself in such a situation, it certainly has a long story before it.”

Von Freyberg said the aim now is to mend relations with the Bank of Italy and move forward on the Vatican’s path of transparency.

“I’m very confident that I’ll get it done,” he said in an interview in his large office inside the Vatican bank. “And let’s talk again … and then either you have a human disaster story or I can offer you a glass of spumante (sparkling wine).”

For his part, Francis — who has made clear he wants a church “of the poor and for the poor” — this week gave another clue to his thoughts on finance.

The archbishop of Buenos Aires has just been elected Pope on the second day of the conclave. White smoke from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel signalled the selection just after 7 p.m. local time.

Maclean’s correspondent Brian Bethune is in Rome and has been filing reports since the start of the conclave:

Tuesday, March 12

7:32 a.m.: There are only so many ways Canadians get internationally famous.

There’s hockey, of course, and that guy up in space, and a teenage pop star. But the best-known Canadian name around the world right now may belong to a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

In St Peter’s Square the night before the conclave to choose a successor to Pope Benedict XVI was to begin, there were three sorts of people milling around, and the ordinary faithful were the fewest in number. The police presence was massive, large enough to be the group most at risk from nuns—easily the most aggressive drivers in Vatican City if not in Rome—flying around in tiny cars.

Most of the cops were engaged in reading their smartphones—in Toronto public safety campaigns are directed at texting-distracted drivers, here they must lose distracted pedestrians in large numbers—or keeping a bored eye on the metal detectors the cardinal electors will pass through on their way to the Sistine Chapel. But both groups were outnumbered by the media staking out prize positions, some from unexpected places, like a Korean wire service or New Delhi TV.

They’re all happy to talk to a Canadian journalist, mostly because they’re down the media pecking order—a telegenic Portuguese-speaking priest with a sizeable entourage took up serious acreage for his interview—but partly because any given Canadian just might know Cardinal Marc Ouellet.

“Your cardinal stands a chance,” exclaims Indian reporter Noupur Tiwari of NDTV, a veteran of papal conclaves—she was here in 2005 for the election of Pope Benedict XVI. Then there were only two Indian cardinals; now there are five, all of voting age. (“There’s just the one Korean,” throws in a clearly unhappy South Korean journalist, “and he’s too old.”)

Interest in India is high, continues Tiwari, because of the rising number of cardinals and Indian Catholics, now 18 million strong), a relatively new female Indian saint and Mother Teresa’s ongoing canonization process. But especially because of the widespread feeling that this might be the moment the papacy leaves European hands for the first in 1,300 years. If it does, they’ll have much bigger entourages next time around.

In all the Third World pope buzz that has swirled since Pope Benedict announced his resignation a month ago, most has focused on African or Asian papabili.

Strangely little, given how South America is the most Catholic of continents, has been said about Latin America (Mexico and Central America add another 100 million to the total.) Until very recently. Suddenly, everyone is talking about Brazil’s Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer, Archbishop of Sao Paulo, the largest archdiocese in the world’s largest Catholic.

Viewing his record and his lack of charismatic presence–the same knock that may prove decisive in the case of Canada’ Cardinal Marc Oullett–points to only two favourable points: the age (63) is good, and he apparently gets along splendidly with the cardinals of the Curia, the papal bureaucrats whose incompetence and worse has made Church governance among the key issues–if not the single most important one–that the cardinals will weigh in their choice for pope. By this theory, the Italians–by which Vatican waters mean the bureaucrats–know they can’t get their wish, an Italian and pro-Curia pontiff, so they’ll settle for what’s important in that combo: the pro-Curia part. (In mirror opposite, the reformers are said to be coalescing around an Italian, Milan’s Cardenal Angelo Scola, to sweeten their bitter change package.)

Like every other pathway proposed–and assiduously leaked by interested parties–for any of a half-dozen papal contenders, it’s perfectly logical.

Unlike most, moreover, it does actually reflect what is a serious divisive issue within the College of Cardinals. Whether the business-as-usual (with a few tweaks, of course) cardinals or the housecleaners prevail, however, will probably not turn on specific candidates, but on whether those voters–67, more than half–appointed by Benedict think the pope emeritus was hamstrung all along by his bureaucracy or by his own missteps.

2:22 p.m.

The Italian media, not exactly known for their even-handed lack of national bias in soccer coverage, are no less intensely nationalistic when it comes to another favourite national sport, pope picking. It’s anointed Milan Cardinal Angelo Scola the favourite.

That’s hardly surprising: for one thing, anyone who wants an Italian AND a reformer has few options. For another, a lot of non-Italians like him too. At 71 he is neither too old nor too young–it’s still uncertain how Benedict’s resignation will play out in all its possible ramifications, but it has surely made the traditional age calculation at best an uncertain factor. The son of a truck driver, who turned to the priesthood relatively late (age 29), Scola has known Benedict for 40 years and is close to him theologically and personally.

His election might foretell what one Catholic commentator has called ”the continuation of the Benedictine papacy by other means.” Perhaps more intriguingly, Scola’s apparent willingness to spearhead the cardinal bloc wishing to thoroughly revamp the Curia probably means that reform was indeed the principal task Benedict felt unable to take on in his final years, but was equally unwilling to let fester until his death.

8:49 a.m.: The first murder of crows to fly by this morning was only five in number, a wholly good thing in itself: Canadian crows may sound like rusty gate hinges, but Roman crows sound like angry rusty gate hinges.

But more importantly, the crows came from the right, the lucky direction for crow augury around here since Romulus killed Remus. The luck has yet to do much for anyone in the Sistine Chapel, but it’s early days as Canada’s Fr. Thomas Rosica tells a Vatican press conference: only Pius XII in 1939 was elected as early as the third ballot.

The unlikeliness of a new pope this morning didn’t stop people in their tens of thousands coming to St. Peter’s Square any more than the driving rain did. There were Brazilian and Romanian flags-the atmosphere does have a certain similarity to a Euro Cup match-Polish monks and Scottish priests, and nuns both numerous, and to North American eyes, startlingly young. Like everyone else they are just waiting.

The Vatican Press Office evidently thought bored journalists were bound to start trouble and called their press conference, which had so little news to impart, that it was reduced to giving the press excessively detailed information about the chemicals in the smoke.

During the briefing Fr. Rosica inadvertently referred to Benedict as the pope. But that too is understandable, because the idea of an ex-pope watching on TV the cardinals file into the Sistine Chapel to elect his successor is still mind-boggling.

]]>http://www.macleans.ca/general/the-conclave-so-far-buzz-swirl-and-anticipation/feed/2Cardinals gather to begin secret voting for successor to Pope Benedicthttp://www.macleans.ca/general/cardinals-gather-to-begin-secret-voting-for-successor-to-pope-benedict/
http://www.macleans.ca/general/cardinals-gather-to-begin-secret-voting-for-successor-to-pope-benedict/#commentsTue, 12 Mar 2013 10:30:43 +0000The Associated Presshttp://www2.macleans.ca/?p=359322VATICAN CITY, Italy – A conclave to elect the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church begins today, with Canada’s Cardinal Marc Ouellet among those in the running to be…

VATICAN CITY, Italy – A conclave to elect the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church begins today, with Canada’s Cardinal Marc Ouellet among those in the running to be the new pontiff.

Ouellet and 114 other cardinals will seal themselves into the ornate Sistine Chapel to pick a successor to Pope Benedict, who retired last month after eight years in office.

Ouellet is a Quebec native who holds a powerful post in the Vatican where he plays a key role in the selection of bishops and archbishops around the world.

The centuries-old process for choosing a new pope is veiled in secrecy and the chapel has been swept for listening devices by Vatican security.

The election of the new pope will be signalled by a puff of white smoke from a special chimney installed on the roof of the Vatican.

Black smoke indicates no decision has been reached.

Several rounds of balloting could be held and the conclave will go on until a new pontiff is chosen.

Auravelia Colomer, 27, cashed in all her annual vacation time to make the pilgrimage to Italy. The Toronto public relations consultant was originally meant to arrive in Rome for Holy Week but set her sights on witnessing the new pope’s election after the date of the conclave was announced.

“I thought I needed to be there, it’s going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it’s going to be historic,” said Colomer, who waited on standby over the weekend before finally securing a flight for Tuesday night.

She’s hoping to get there before the decision is made and plans to “run over to St. Peter’s Square and camp out until I see the smoke.”

Colomer said it’s long been her dream to be present for such a pivotal moment for the Catholic faith, but admits “the possibility of a Canadian pope is also a driving factor.”

Cardinals held a final debate on Monday on the type of man best suited for the job.

Some wonder whether Catholics need a solid manager to address the Vatican bureaucracy and controversies over scandals and alleged corruption or a more inspirational figure to bring more people into the church.

]]>http://www.macleans.ca/general/cardinals-gather-to-begin-secret-voting-for-successor-to-pope-benedict/feed/0Cardinal Marc Ouellet’s hometown waits for word — ‘one day at a time, with optimism’http://www.macleans.ca/news/cardinal-marc-ouellets-hometown-waits-for-word-one-day-at-a-time-with-optimism/
http://www.macleans.ca/news/cardinal-marc-ouellets-hometown-waits-for-word-one-day-at-a-time-with-optimism/#commentsSat, 09 Mar 2013 02:12:23 +0000The Canadian Presshttp://www2.macleans.ca/?p=358809LA MOTTE, Que. – There are no hotel rooms in this town and the closest thing to a restaurant is the general store that sells chips and chocolate along a…

LA MOTTE, Que. – There are no hotel rooms in this town and the closest thing to a restaurant is the general store that sells chips and chocolate along a regional snowmobile trail.

The sleepy hometown of a Canadian contender for the papacy is bracing for the possibility of him actually becoming pope.

The prospect of receiving such sudden international recognition has prompted a mix of excitement and concern in Cardinal Marc Ouellet’s community of La Motte, Que.

Many in the peaceful municipality of 439 fear the overnight transformation to becoming the birthplace of a pope would shatter the tranquility that lured them there in the first place.

Others, however, are eager to roll out a welcome mat for the potential influx of tourists — and their wallets.

The owners of the general store were already thinking about the possibilities well before the conclave, which begins Tuesday in Rome.

Line Breault’s eyes lit up when talking about Ouellet becoming pope, something she said would fill the people of La Motte with pride. She also predicted it would be a financial boon.

“Seeing that we’ve reached a certain age, maybe we’ll find a buyer so that we could retire,” said Breault, who runs Epicerie Chez Flo with her husband, Florian.

One regular client at Chez Flo is thrilled by the idea that Ouellet could be named the next pope, for a couple of reasons.

For one, Nathalie Savard is the cardinal’s second cousin. Also, she thinks his ascension would deliver major economic spinoffs for the Abitibi region.

“Damn, it would be a plus for La Motte,” she said, while Breault measured the 26-inch pike Savard had caught during a local ice-fishing derby.

“It would bring some action, it would bring some tourists, it would also develop La Motte because it’s stagnant.

“It’s been stagnant for several years — and all of Abitibi is like that.”

The village, about 600 kilometres northwest of Montreal, experienced a jump in visitors in recent weeks, due to journalists from more than a dozen media outlets who have descended on the town.

The tranquility of the place extends to the local church, where Ouellet was baptized and ordained as a priest.

St-Luc church, built with the help of Ouellet’s father and grandfathers, is now a municipal community centre.

La Motte bought the church a few years ago for $1 from the parish, which could no longer afford to maintain the building amid severely declining attendance.

Mass is still held there every second Sunday.

A Ouellet papacy, however, could potentially turn the 75-year-old building into a local cash cow.

Some possible plans could see La Motte charge entry fees to the community centre and sell souvenirs, says its mayor.

“Everything is on the table, everything is possible,” Rene Martineau said. The town has already begun drawing up business plans with the regional tourism board.

“Everyone is proud to have a native Lamottois who might become pope. There aren’t many popes in the world — there’s only one.”

He said another possibility could see a religious and cultural circuit of Quebec’s Abitibi region, which would bus tourists through La Motte and nearby towns. Martineau said while visitors might not stay in La Motte, he would ensure the town reaps some of the financial benefits.

Planners are also considering some sort of commemoration to Ouellet in La Motte. His childhood home is long gone and there’s not even a photo of him hanging in his old church.

But amid the excitement lies concern.

The mayor wants to ensure the town could address some of the realities of a post-papal life. Many villagers are concerned about the unprecedented traffic a Ouellet election could bring to La Motte.

When a native son is catapulted into the papacy, the reverberations back home can be strong.

The hometowns of the last two popes — Wadowice, Poland, and Marktl, Germany — would see between 100,000 and 500,000 visitors per year, according to media reports and tourism-board claims.

One recent report in Montreal La Presse placed the number of visitors to John Paul II’s Polish hometown far higher, easily outpacing Benedict’s.

It’s hard to imagine La Motte getting anything close to that.

Wadowice already has 19,000 residents and it’s about 50 kilometres from two frequent destinations: in one direction there’s Krakow, the country’s second-biggest city, and in the other is Auschwitz, the infamous Second World War concentration camp.

Marktl only has only 2,700 residents but it’s an easy train ride, less than two hours from Munich.

Still, even a fraction of their visitor totals could change life in tiny La Motte. The village is much more isolated from big transport hubs, which leaves officials wondering what to expect if Ouellet gets the nod.

]]>http://www.macleans.ca/news/cardinal-marc-ouellets-hometown-waits-for-word-one-day-at-a-time-with-optimism/feed/0Pope to resign Feb. 28http://www.macleans.ca/news/vatican-says-pope-resigning-on-feb-28/
http://www.macleans.ca/news/vatican-says-pope-resigning-on-feb-28/#commentsMon, 11 Feb 2013 12:08:19 +0000The Associated Presshttp://www2.macleans.ca/?p=349022Pope Benedict XVI: 'My strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry'

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday that he would resign Feb. 28 – the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. The decision sets the stage for a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March.

The 85-year-old pope announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals on Monday morning.

He emphasized that carrying out the duties of being pope – the leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics worldwide – requires “both strength of mind and body.”

“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” he told the cardinals. “I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only by words and deeds but no less with prayer and suffering.

“However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of St. Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary – strengths which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.”

The last pope to resign was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism among competing papal claimants.

Benedict called his choice “a decision of great importance for the life of the church.”

The move sets the stage for the Vatican to hold a conclave to elect a new pope by mid-March, since the traditional mourning time that would follow the death of a pope doesn’t have to be observed.

There are several papal contenders in the wings, but no obvious front-runner – the same situation when Benedict was elected pontiff in 2005 after the death of Pope John Paul II.

]]>http://www.macleans.ca/news/vatican-says-pope-resigning-on-feb-28/feed/0Kateri Tekakwitha becomes North America’s first aboriginal sainthttp://www.macleans.ca/general/kateri-tekakwitha-becomes-north-americas-first-aboriginal-saint/
http://www.macleans.ca/general/kateri-tekakwitha-becomes-north-americas-first-aboriginal-saint/#commentsSun, 21 Oct 2012 11:29:40 +0000The Canadian Presshttp://www2.macleans.ca/?p=305499VATICAN CITY - Kateri Tekakwitha, a woman credited with life-saving miracles, has become North America's first aboriginal saint after a canonization mass at the Vatican.

VATICAN CITY – Kateri Tekakwitha, a woman credited with life-saving miracles, has become North America’s first aboriginal saint after a canonization mass at the Vatican.

Tekakwitha was among the seven saints Pope Benedict XVI added to the roster of Catholic role models Sunday morning as he tries to rekindle the faith in places where it’s lagging.

Aboriginal Canadians and Americans in traditional dress sang songs to Kateri as the sun rose over St. Peter’s Square.

They joined pilgrims from around the world at the Mass and cheered when Benedict, in Latin, declared each of the seven new saints worthy of veneration by the church.

In his homily, Benedict praised each of the seven new saints as examples for the entire church.

“With heroic courage they spent their lives in total consecration to the Lord and in the generous service of their brethren,” he said.

Speaking in English and French, in honour of Kateri’s Canadian ties, Benedict noted how unusual it was in Kateri’s culture for her to choose to devote herself to her Catholic faith.

“May her example help us to live where we are, loving Jesus without denying who we are,” he said. “Saint Kateri, protectress of Canada and the first Native American saint, we entrust you to the renewal of the faith in the first nations and in all of North America!”

Tekakwitha, who is also known as “Lily of the Mohawks,” was born in New York state in 1656 before fleeing to a settlement north of the border to escape opposition to her Christianity.

She died in 1680 at the age of 24. Her body is entombed in a marble shrine at the St. Francis-Xavier Church in Kahnawake, a Montreal-area Mowhawk community that was expected be well represented among the 1,500 Canadian pilgrims set to attend the celebrations.

The process for her canonization began in the 1880s and Tekakwitha was eventually beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980.

According to a longtime deacon at the Kahnawake reserve, an event six years ago is widely viewed as a miracle which sealed Tekakwitha’s canonization.

The case involved six-year-old Jake Finkbonner, who belongs to the Lummi tribe in Washington, said Ron Boyer, who was appointed by the Vatican in 2007 to help make the case for the canonization.

Finkbonner was knocked over while playing basketball, striking his lip on a post. The incident led to the boy developing a high fever which landed him in intensive care where doctors determined he had a flesh-eating disease.

The deacon said Sister Kateri Mitchell, a Mohawk from the Akwesasne reserve, happened to be visiting the area and was summoned by the family. She had a bone relic of Tekakwitha which was held to Finkbonner’s chest as his family prayed.

According to Boyer, at that point the infection stopped spreading and began to heal.

Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, is among 17 bishops who were to make the trip to the Vatican, while House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer was also expected to attend Sunday’s mass.

The other new saints are: Mother Marianne Cope, a 19th century Franciscan nun who cared for leprosy patients in Hawaii; Pedro Calungsod, a Filipino teenager who helped Jesuit priests convert natives in Guam in the 17th century but was killed by spear-wielding villagers opposed to the missionaries’ efforts to baptize their children; Jacques Berthieu, a 19th century French Jesuit who was killed by rebels in Madagascar, where he worked as a missionary; Giovanni Battista Piamarta, an Italian who founded a religious order in 1900 and established a Catholic printing and publishing house in his native Brescia; Carmen Salles Y Barangueras, a Spanish nun who founded a religious order to educate children in 1892; and Anna Schaeffer, a 19th century German lay woman who became a model for the sick and suffering after she fell into a boiler and badly burned her legs. The wounds never healed, causing her constant pain.

]]>http://www.macleans.ca/general/kateri-tekakwitha-becomes-north-americas-first-aboriginal-saint/feed/1Pope hires Fox reporter to advise on mediahttp://www.macleans.ca/general/pope-hires-fox-news-journalist-to-advise-on-media/
http://www.macleans.ca/general/pope-hires-fox-news-journalist-to-advise-on-media/#commentsSun, 24 Jun 2012 09:38:46 +0000macleans.cahttp://www2.macleans.ca/?p=270438When it comes to the spin wars, having God on your side is not enough. The Associated Press is reporting that the Vatican has hired a journalist from Fox News…

“I’m a bit nervous but very excited,” Greg Burke told the news agency. “Let’s just say it’s a challenge.”

The journalist, a member of Opus Dei, said he’d been approached by the Vatican twice before. “I’m an old-fashioned Midwestern Catholic whose mother went to Mass every day,” Burke said. “Am I being hired because I’m in Opus Dei?” he asked. “It might come into play.”

Even as the Vatican deals with the fallout of the continuing sex abuse scandal, Pope Benedict XVI has announced that he is setting up a team to “re-evangelize” the West to counter the rising secularization of once-Catholic countries, including Canada.

The new department, to be called the Pontifical Council for New Evangelization, is aimed at rich, developed countries whose practising Catholic population has declined. The Pope hopes the new body will tackle the “process of secularization” that “has produced a serious crisis of the sense of the Christian faith and role of the Church.” Monsignor Rino Fisichella, the recently retired president of the Pontifical Academy for Life (the Vatican’s top bioethics position), is the president of the council.

The announcement came at a vespers service in late June, during which the Pope also confirmed new appointments to senior positions. The bureaucratic shakeup included the assignment of Quebec Cardinal Marc Ouellet as head of the Congregation for Bishops, which vets bishop nominations worldwide.

On June 11, before about 15,000 priests gathered in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI apologized for the clergy sex abuse scandal.

On June 28, the Church issued another mea culpa of sorts on a different matter—corruption charges. The Vatican admitted to potential “errors” in the handling of real estate, following accusations that a top cardinal has been implicated in a public works scandal. And it’s got one expert wondering if a “diplomatic tussle” could result over the powers of church and state.

Prosecutors are investigating whether Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, the archbishop of Naples, accepted kickbacks during his time as head of Propaganda Fide, which handles Vatican real estate holdings. It’s alleged that from 2001 to 2006, Sepe sold property below market price to a government minister, who approved funds to restore Church buildings in return.
Contracts being investigated in the wide-ranging probe are worth several billion euros.

The Church has long had concerns about interference from secular authorities, notes Robert Ventresca, a history professor at the University of Western Ontario’s King’s University College who specializes in the Church. He points to Belgium, where a recent police raid on the Church in connection with the abuse scandal was denounced as “deplorable” by the Pope. “These are separate issues,” Ventresca notes, “but they’re related insofar as you see a certain response.” He believes the Vatican is “growing more combative in terms of pushing against civil authorities.” Still, the acknowledgement of possible error around real estate deals could be a sign of a lesson learned in the abuse scandal—the importance of public response.